


i can hold the weight of worlds

by sohappily (somuchitshurting)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bullying, Coming Out, Family, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-05-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 13:48:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1690532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somuchitshurting/pseuds/sohappily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Tomlinson family has a strict "no bullying" policy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i can hold the weight of worlds

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song "Human" by Christina Perri. Inspired by [this post](http://lampbox.tumblr.com/post/65135523412/full-of-win) and written for the lovely [dreamyletters](http://dreamyletters.tumblr.com/). Check out her beautiful artwork!

Christian Tomlinson was a self-proclaimed hero with a penchant for football and an affinity for insightful conversation. Unfortunately, his status as the star player of his local football team tended to discourage his meeker peers from exchanging words with him, much to his chagrin. He really liked talking with people; he found differing ideas to be quite enlightening and broadened his mind to accommodate other opinions.

One topic that he did not find at all tolerable was bullying.

“Shhh! Don’t get near him! You’ll catch the disease!”

“Ew, I heard he was snogging a picture of Liam Hemsworth the other day.”

“Please, I heard he keeps a secret journal of a bunch of washed up boy banders.”

“He used to be so normal. Then I found out that he was gay.”

“Gay.”

“ _Gay._ ”

Christian looked around his classroom with disgust as his fellow classmates congregated in hushed groups trying to stifle their giggles. In the corner sat a lonely boy of sixteen who used to be called Peter. Now he was “The Gay One.”

It was unfair and completely uncalled for. He didn’t know how the poor boy accidentally came out (a friend accidentally spilled? He got caught? Christian didn’t know, didn’t care) but he knew for sure that poor Peter was in a hot mess. He glanced at the snickering faces of his peers and never before felt such a sick, sinking feeling.

“Why don’t you just run home to your boyfriend instead of sitting in class like a sniveling coward?”

Of course. Thomas. He was the most likely candidate for instigating this whole fiasco and was the paramount leader in all matters of low self-esteem. Just hanging out with him for a couple of minutes made Christian feel as if he himself were the scum of the earth. Thomas’ posse let out a huge chorus of raucous laughter, and the walls shook with malicious intent.

“Go on to mummy if you’re going to cry about it!” Thomas sneered. “Go be a good boy!”

Peter’s face welled up to a sickly pink color, and it was obvious that he was blinking back tears. “Please… Please stop,” he whispered.

“Aww, boo hoo! Your boyfriend is going to be so disappointed with you!”

“ _Cut that crap out._ ”

The whole room turned cold in stunned silence. Christian had shot up from his seat and was striding right up to Thomas. He jabbed him in the chest with his thumb and glared him straight in the eyes. “Don’t you ever talk down to a person like that. No one deserves the hatred and acid spewing out of your lopsided mouth.”

Thomas smirked. “Look at you, thinking you’re all high and mighty. Since when do little football players like you stand up for the geeks? Someone might think you have something on the side with lil’ Petey here.”

He started to chuckle, but Christian shoved him with the blunt force of his palms. “If you think that using a person’s sexuality is the basis of a good insult, you’re sorely mistaken. There is nothing wrong with being who you are.”

Thomas merely rolled his eyes. “Oh, congratulations, I didn’t realize you became the Grand Master of the Gays. Please tell me, where did you get this wonderful knowledge of the elusive homosexual? Is it from personal experience? Wow, I would kill myself if I ever had to kiss another guy.”

 _God,_ it was a good thing Christian kept a level head; otherwise, he would have socked this jerk in the gut an hour ago. He must have looked really restrained, though, because Peter mumbled, “You don’t have to hurt him, Chris, he’s not worth it…”

“Isn’t that cute?” Thomas smiled. “You wouldn’t want to displease your boyfriend, would ya Chrissy ol’ mate? Here’s a grand idea: you run back to your little balls, and Pete and I will have a nice chat with me fists. Sound good?”

“Tell that to my fathers, you dick.” And he punched him right in the face.

* * *

Christian didn’t like calling it suspension; rather, he coined it more as “momentary probation.” He was sitting on his living room couch while his father paced around with his hands knotted up in his hair.

“Christian, I cannot _believe_ that you would harm another student. Haven’t your father and I taught you better than that? Violence is never the answer.”

“Oh please, Haz, the kid was asking for it. Christian merely delivered.”

“ _Louis._ ”

“Sorry.”

“Your father and I could not be more disappointed in your actions today.” Quite the contrary, for his other dad was flashing him a thumbs up. “Starting today, I expect you to wash up all the dishes and clean out the cat box for an entire month.”

“But, Daddy– ”

“ _And_ wash all the windows. I better see them sparkle, or you’ll be expecting another month of chores.”

Louis frowned. “H, I think you’re being a bit harsh on the lad. He only punched a kid in the face. Why, we’ve done much worse things in our bed–”

His father seemed quite frazzled and immediately started a cacophony of shushing. He sneaked a glance at Christian’s innocent face and laughed it off weakly. “No, don’t listen to Papa,” he said through clenched teeth. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Christian crossed his arms and pouted just like his curly-haired dad liked to do. “You haven’t even heard me out.”

“Giving me lip now, are you? Keep talking back and I might take away football practice.”

“Now that’s just cruel,” Louis commented nonchalantly.

“Okay, now you’re _really_ not helping…”

“But Dads, the boy I fought was making fun of a boy who came out today!”

Harry halted straight in his tracks, and Louis snapped his head towards Christian.

“He _what?_ ” he barked.

His other father must not have expected that response for he stood still in gaping disbelief. “I thought people were behind all this homophobia,” Harry murmured.

Christian chewed on the inside of his mouth and twiddled his thumbs anxiously. “I couldn’t just let them say all those nasty things; Peter’s a nice kid and he didn’t deserve any of that. Haven’t you always taught me to stand up for others and what I believe in, Daddy?”

“Now don’t go patronizing me,” Harry muttered under his breath. He cleared his throat. “Well, at least this explains your actions. It doesn’t excuse them, mind you, but it does give you reason. I still expect a month of chores from you. No windows, though.”

Christian flashed him a halfhearted smile. “Thanks, Dad.”

Louis was susceptible to mass hysteria due to the blind anger in the furrow of his brow had a knock on the door not startled him into dropping his tea cup.

“The blazes?” he shouted. “Who’s knocking on our door at this time of night?”

“Try not to yell, Lou, or you’ll wake up Darcy.”

“Sorry. But you know she’s a heavy sleeper.”

“Yes, I know, but…”

While his parents bickered, Christian popped up from his seat to tentatively open his front door. The smiling face of Peter shocked him enough into almost slamming it shut.

“Er, Peter? Just what are you doing here, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Peter looked down at his feet and scraped them nervously across the pavement. “I-I never got a chance to say thank you. For earlier.”

Christian let out a small laugh. “It’s no problem, but you could have just called if you wanted to say thanks.”

The poor boy turned a bright fuchsia and became quite concentrated on a small pebble near his toes. “I actually had another reason for coming. S-see, my mum… She doesn’t know about anything yet... And I don’t know how to bring up the conversation… And you seemed like a pretty cool person, Christian, so I assumed you were raised by pretty cool people, so I was wondering…”

“Oi, Dads!” Christian turned around to where his parents were in heated debate. “You’ve got a visitor!”

The two stopped dead and took into account the situation. Instantly Harry turned on the charm and floated over to where the boys were.

“Hello there, lad, it’s nice to meet you! M’name’s Harry, and this here is my husband Louis. You must be Christian’s friend Peter from school. Please, can I get you anything? Tea? Water? Any kind of snack?”

“I-I don’t think I ever said my name, sir,” Peter mumbled, somehow turning an even more bright pink.

“Nonsense, I have a knack for people’s names,” Harry grinned. “And Christian’s told me all about you.”

“No, no I haven’t,” he mumbled to no one in particular.

Louis started chuckling. “Haz, you’re being incredibly quirky right now. Let’s not scare away our guest!” He clapped a strong hand on Peter’s shoulder, and the pitiful boy shook under his strong grip.

Christian slapped a hand to his face. “Dad, you’re somehow being even _more_ embarrassing.”

“Eh, what? You want me to show your friend all the pictures of you being toilet trained? Why, I would be happy to, you should have asked earlier.”

“Let’s get out of the doorway so that we can have a nice chat in an actual room, shall we?” Christian groaned through gritted teeth, latching onto his new friend’s arm and dragging him into their lounge.

When everyone had gotten themselves situated, they stared at each other in awkward silence. And of course, it had to be Louis to break the quiet.

“So I heard my son punched another kid in the face for you at school today.”

“ _Papa_!” Christian scolded, but Peter gave him a hesitant nod.

“Yes, that’s true,” he frowned. “I couldn’t stick up for myself, and I never thought someone like Christian here would defend me. He’s such an inspiring and prominent person, you know, being the captain of the football team and what not, and so likeable around everyone and so confident and so nice and so…” Peter was quickly getting lost in his thoughts and slowly raised his hands so that he could burrow his face away from his shame. Harry held up a tender hand to stop his incessant ramblings.

“It’s alright, lad, to feel these emotions. As I understand, a momentous event happened for you recently?” Peter weakly smiled at him. “I’m going to tell you something important: it’s okay to not understand everything. Why, when I was your age,” (Christian had to roll his eyes; his father sounded so old whenever he said that) “I didn’t completely comprehend my situation. I thought it was a normal stage that everybody went through. When I found out it was just me, I wanted to hide myself for fear of what others thought of me. I didn’t want to be judged based on some arbitrary fact. And I was scared, too. Of what people would do if they knew. What my family, my friends would do.” Harry paused, and the other three looked up at him expectantly. “But you know, I learned that it’s alright to go through these things. And when people find out, the very best thing you can do is to not let it get to you. You can let them jeer and jest at you, but you can either be defeated by their words or rise above them. You can’t change who you are, but you can change how you react. And who knows? Maybe your confidence will help you find someone. I know mine did.” He gave Louis a loving pat, who returned a soft glance.

Christian looked over at Peter who was on the verge of tears. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I needed that.” There was a tender moment of mutual acceptance and understanding between the four before Peter announced, “But how do I tell me mum?”

“When you feel ready for it,” Louis answered. “I wrote mine a letter, and Harry flat out told his mum. It doesn’t matter how, it just matters if you are prepared. I’m certain she will completely understand. And if not? There is always a welcome place for you here in the Tomlinson home.”

That really set off Peter’s tears. They let him sob for a good five minutes, and Harry came back with cups of tea, and they all enjoyed each other’s company for the rest of the night.

When Harry finally checked the clock, he nearly choked on his tea. “Peter, it’s getting quite late. You should probably get back to your home now.”

He thanked them for their erudite advice and the wonderful time, and they all said their goodbyes. Christian walked him to the door as his fathers were cleaning up the living room, and the two boys shared a clumsy hug in front of Christian’s home.

“Really, I’m truly grateful for what you did for me,” Peter confided. “I can’t thank you enough.”

Christian brushed it off with a wave of his hands. “Please, it’s nothing. I only sought to do what was right.”

“I was always afraid of you for the power that you held, but it turns out you’re a really nice guy. I’ll see you around tomorrow, yeah?”

“Oh.” He had almost forgotten. “Er, actually, I’ve sort of been asked to not come back to school for a couple of days…”

Peter looked absolutely horrified and stammered, “My God, I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t know, this is all my fault!”

“No, don’t worry about it, I promise! You’re the one who has to stay strong despite all those terrible people. But I know you can do it. You’re a true hero.”

Peter grinned with every fiber of his being. “Thanks, mate.”

They clasped each other tightly, and gave each a stout clap on the back. Peter headed off down the street, waving goodbye as vigorously as he could. He looked happier than he had all school year. As he returned the gentle hand motion, Christian was hit with a horrible sinking feeling.

When was he going to tell his own fathers that he was gay?

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave me a message at my [tumblr](http://muddithemudkip.tumblr.com/). Thanks for reading!


End file.
